Machining set-up?

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PetersonME

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Dec 21, 2005
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I'm looking for a reccomentation for a machining set-up for the new knife maker-professional wanabe. I want to make folders someday. thanks Marty
 
Marty, do you mean "machining" as in lathe/mill/surface grinder or are you looking for recommendations about grinder/drill press/metal-cutting bandsaw?
 
Small mills are sold by Taig, Sherline, Harbor Freight, Grizzly, Homier, others. The "mini-mill" is very popular as an entry-level machine. The last three companies also sell small lathes.

A lot of people pick up used American-made surface grinders like Boyer-Schultz. The "benchtop " surface grinder from Grizzly, Harbor Freight,Enco, etc is a Chinese machine that isn't bad for the money. I've had one in service now for 20+ years.

If you are interested in a "one-stop" machine for lathe/mill there is a company called "Smithy" that makes a line of machines. A couple folks here have them and seem to like them.

Many more will chime in...stay tuned. :)
 
Thanks for getting back to me, Mike. I'm looking for all equipment recommendations but especially lathe/mill/surface grinder . Man I wish I could spell better!
 
Thanks again Mike! You've given me a lot to research! I'm just doing research at this point. I like to use good equipment if I can afford it. Standing By.....
 
you're welcome! If the search will work for you, plug in "Mini-mill" and you'll find a bunch of discussion about the pro's and con's of that popular little machine. Higgins has suggested that if you take it apart, clean it up, and adjust stuff it is a very serviceable unit. The sad truism, though, is that this is another of those situations in life where you always wish you had a bigger one. See the Bridgeport threads to see how people get stars in their eyes at the holy grail of mills. Thyey are huge beasts, though. For folder making tasks, though, that minimill may be your best bet, and about as affordable as it gets. Bear in mind, though, that tooling will eventually eat up just as many $$ as the mill itself. Collets, vises, endmills, slitters, yaddayadda.

For a good discussion comparing the various sellers of the mini-mill, visit www.mini-lathe.com another place iswww.littlemachineshop.com

Many recommend stepping up to one of the various models of mill drill. Grizzly is a good place to compare. If you don't "know" Grizzly, definitely get a catalog from them. grizzly is very popular amongst knifemakers because it offers decent machine at's affordable prices.
 
fitzo said:
you're welcome! If the search will work for you, plug in "Mini-mill" and you'll find a bunch of discussion about the pro's and con's of that popular little machine. Higgins has suggested that if you take it apart, clean it up, and adjust stuff it is a very serviceable unit. The sad truism, though, is that this is another of those situations in life where you always wish you had a bigger one. See the Bridgeport threads to see how people get stars in their eyes at the holy grail of mills. Thyey are huge beasts, though. For folder making tasks, though, that minimill may be your best bet, and about as affordable as it gets. Bear in mind, though, that tooling will eventually eat up just as many $$ as the mill itself. Collets, vises, endmills, slitters, yaddayadda.

For a good discussion comparing the various sellers of the mini-mill, visit www.mini-lathe.com another place iswww.littlemachineshop.com

Many recommend stepping up to one of the various models of mill drill. Grizzly is a good place to compare. If you don't "know" Grizzly, definitely get a catalog from them. grizzly is very popular amongst knifemakers because it offers decent machine at's affordable prices.
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Why didnt you tell him about Bridgeports?!!!:D :D
 
Another tool many folder makers swear by is a turret drill press. Folder making involves lots of repeated uses of different drill bits, reamers, and maybe counterbores. Not having to change them manually can save a lot of time.

Higgy had a thread on this sometime in the last year.

Dan Pierson
 
adammichael said:
Why didnt you tell him about Bridgeports?!!!:D :D
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I DID! What part of "holy grail" didn't you understand? Clean yer glasses! ;) :)
 
I didn't mean to open a can a worms gentlemen...Thanks for the info but I'm stayin away from those Bridgeports, people get all excited and such...
 
No can of worms at all. That was male bonding we were sharing. He even bought me lunch last Saturday, though he did take me to a cheap restaurant. ;) :D
 
Considering the cost and the weight of commercial surface grinders I have decided to tackle building one just big enough for blades. Thier weights vary between 660 to over 800 Lbs. As far as complexity they rank as a more simple machines in overall design and parts. Most of the big pieces are allready laying around my cluttered shop.

Right now I am doing the same thing (almost) with a $4 100lbs magnet and my belt grinder.
 
Besides the usual suspects that Fitzo recommended, in the lathe and mill arena, there is another tier of small machine tools such the Prazi-Wabeco line of benchtop models from Germany. For smaller lathes you might also look at the Myford Super 7B and EMCO (not Enco) has their Compact 5 and Super 11 all of which are good units.

Smithy was also mentioned and as far a 3 in 1 tools go it is not bad, particularly when space is at a premium. I have one of their Granite models and it's a pretty good lathe but the round column mill leaves something to be desired but for small work is fine.

Blue Ridge Machinery at http://www.blueridgemachinery.com/ carries a number of these and I think these folks http://www.ismg4tools.com/ are the distributors for Prazi. Prazi is the high priced spread for benchtop machine tools however.

Allen
 
Allen,

Do you happen to know if Compact 5's are still even being made nowadays? I have a Compact 5 lathe with the milling head attachment. (Nice little lathe, mill leaves something to be desired a bit.) I did a bunch of searching a year or so ago and found that EMCO_Maier seems to have discontinued manufacture of the Compact5's.

Do you know if someone else is manufacturing new ones? Thanks! :)
 
fitzo said:
No can of worms at all. That was male bonding we were sharing. He even bought me lunch last Saturday, though he did take me to a cheap restaurant. ;) :D
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HEY!! They make the best $2 Ruben in town, ungratefull son of a.....:p
 
I have a Taig lathe and I really doubt you can do better for the price.
I know a VERY good knife maker that get top dollar for his folders and alot of the parts are made on the Taig lathe. Check out Ebay for the best prices. Good luck. No matter what you get you will never have enough tools. Start saving.
 
adammichael said:
HEY!! They make the best $2 Ruben in town, ungratefull son of a.....:p
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It WAS a most excellent Reuben! They seem to understand kraut real good up there in Wisconsin. (Go figure, eh?) Don't know if you noticed, but it's even their own home-brew corned beef.

Thanks again for lunch, Michael. That was my best Saturday in a long time. :thumbup:
 
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